The auto industry is not the financial industry — it is not populated primarily by white collar, educated executives, lawyers and money men. The auto industry employs tens of thousands of blue collar, unskilled laborers — people who spend money rather than horde it.

Should Congress fail to act decisively and support the auto industry in its time of need, whole towns in the Midwest will become ghost towns. A great swath of the United States will be left with little to no means of supporting itself. Henry Ford helped shape modern American industry and, until now, many families are still reaping the benefits of the that vision.

We in Northwest Connecticut know well what happens when industry shuts down. Cities and towns like Torrington and Winsted struggle to grow decades after a mass job loss, and the questions of how to revive local economies is still on the forefront of the agendas.

Torrington, using its redevelopment plan, is trying to reinvent its downtown. But how can literally half the Midwest reinvent itself? How could all of those jobs be replaced?

They could never be replaced, and so they must be guaranteed by taxpayer dollars, however hard that might be."